630
THE “ALBEMARLE’’ AND THE “SASSACUS
from a Brooke gun almost touching our side crashedthrough, followed immediately "by a cloud of steamand boiling water that filled the forward decks as our
REAR-ADMIRAL E. A. ROE, D. S. N.
overcharged boilers, pierced by the shot, emptiedtheir contents with a shrill scream that drownedfor an instant the roar of the guns. The shouts of
command and the cries of scalded, wounded, andblinded men mingled with the rattle of small-armsthat told of a hand-to-hand conflict above. Theship surged heavily to port as the great weight ofwater in the boilers was expended, and over thecry, “ The ship is sinking! ” came the shout, “ Allhands, repel boarders on starboard bow!”
The men below, wild with the boiling steam,sprang to the ladder with pistol and cutlass, andgained the bulwarks ; but men in the rigging withmuskets and hand-grenades, and the well-directedfire from the crews of the guns, soon baffled theattempt of the Confederates to gain our decks. Tosend our crew on the grated top of the iron-cladwould have been madness. The horrid tumult,always characteristic of battle, was intensified bythe cries of agony from the scalded and franticmen. In the midst of all this, when every otherman had left the engine-room, our chief engineer,Mr. Hobby, although badly scalded, stood withheroism at his post; nor did he leave it till afterthe action, when he was brought up, blinded andhelpless, to the deck. An officer of the Wyalusingsays that when the dense smoke and steam envel-oped ns they thought we had sunk, till the flashof our gnus burst through the clouds, followedby flash after flash in quick succession as our menrecovered from the shock of the explosion.
To us, at least, there seemed time enough forthe other ships to close in on the ram and sink her,or sink beside her, and it was thirteen minutes astimed by an officer of the Wyalusing ; but the otherships were silent, and with stopped engines looked
5.05
Sbeubule Miles.